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Monthly Archives for December 2012

A mum from Flitwick has written a book for high flyers with advice on how to keep a successful work life balance.

Heather Townsend, who trains and mentors business professionals for a living as well as bringing up her two children, co-wrote How To make Partner And Still Have A Life with organisational and leadership development professional Jo Larbie.

The book is designed to help people get the most from their careers, without sacrificing their private goals.

Heather said: “For professionals working in practice such as solicitors or accountants the holy-grail is to make partner, with it’s financial rewards and levels of responsibility.”

She added: “But in the fiercely competitive corporate world, “How do I make partner?” Is a question asked by many who feel unable to reach the top of their company tree without huge sacrifices to their personal life.”

This is Heather’s second book, and as well as living in Flitwick for ten years she has penned the Financial Times Guide To Business Networking and worked with over 100 partners and coached, trained and mentored more than 1,000 professionals across the world.

She said: “My background is actually an engineering degree from Oxford, and the last time I wrote an essay was at school for my GCSE. So I’m not quite sure how I decided I was equipped to write 60k words.”

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Volunteers looking for a missing Bedfordshire man have pledged to carry on with their search, after finding the remains of another man on Thursday.

Edward Gillespie, 38, from Luton, was last seen early on Saturday at the Roydon Marina Hotel near Roydon Mill in Essex after a Christmas party.

Six of his friends found a body, thought to be Gwyn Morris, 88, in Feildes Weir Lock, Hoddesdon.

Mr Morris went missing from a care home in Stanstead Abbotts on 6 December.

Another team of volunteers had spent the day looking for the elderly man, after his family appealed for the public’s help.

The body has not yet been formally identified.

‘Trying to help’

One of the group which found the body, Matthew McGrath, 37, who has known Mr Gillespie since they were 11-year-old pupils at Icknield High School, said he had been searching for his friend nearly every day since he was reported missing.

“We are just going to keep looking,” he said.

A Facebook page has been set up to help co-ordinate the volunteer search and Mr McGrath said: “Eddie has got a lot of good friends and so many are trying to help.”

He said six of them spent Thursday walking along the river, putting posters in pubs and talking to people along the way when he and friend Chris Bartlett spotted a body in the water.

Gwyn Morris was described by police as as “extremely vulnerable”

“We thought we saw someone head down in the water, but it looked like a car seat,” he said.

“We called everyone else who managed to turn it over with sticks and I saw it was a body, but I knew it wasn’t Eddie because of his clothes.”

Police were notified and officers told them it might be another missing person.

“It’s terrible that we found a body but I hope it at least gives his family closure,” said Mr McGrath.

“If someone found Eddie, at least we would know.”

Mr McGrath said he had no idea what could have happened to his friend.

‘So hard’

“A lot of thoughts are going through my head, but Eddie doesn’t really go anywhere without anyone, that’s the confusing bit,” he said.

“It’s so hard at the moment, when I am on my own I get upset but when I am looking for him I just feel a drive to carry on.”

Essex Police said they were continuing to investigate Mr Gillespie’s disappearance.

A spokesperson said they were concerned about members of the public doing their own searches, because water levels in the area were high and river banks were slippery.

“We have professional searchers out and want to warn people not to put themselves in danger,” she said.

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Two sisters have been reunited for Christmas after one of them won £5,000 on ITV quiz show The Chase.

Helen Armitage, 66, appeared on the hit show earlier this month, and is now enjoying three weeks in the sun in Australia with her sister, who she has not seen for five years.

Helen, of Bedford Street, Ampthill, used her winnings from the show to fly to Australia to spend the festive season with her sibling Anne Foster, her husband, two children and four grandchildren,

Speaking from Australia Helen said: “I’m having an amazing time over here, it is so lovely to see my sister again after all this time, and that is obviously all thanks to The Chase.

“I used to come over a bit more regularly, but once I retired I struggled to afford the air fare, so it’s been five years since I’ve seen Anne.

“I haven’t even seen the show yet, because I was actually mid-air when it was broadcast. They told me ten days before what date it was going out, I asked them to move it back, but they said they couldn’t.”

Helen, a self-confessed quiz fan, was a contestant on the show on December 7 where she beat three other contestants she was battling against to win the final jackpot.

The show, which is hosted by Bradley Walsh, sees four contestants answering general knowledge questions throughout the show, and playing their tactics right in order to get themselves into the final Chase, where they could win a cash pot worth thousands of pounds.

But standing in their way is their common enemy, the Chaser, one of the finest quiz brains in the country, who chases contestants down the board in a tense and thrilling test of knowledge to try to catch them and throw them out of the game.

Filming for the show took place in September and Helen was the only person out of the four contestants that got through to the final.

She managed to bag her winning fund of £5,000 in the earlier round, and beat the Chaser in the nail-biting final.

The former news channel producer said: “I’ve always worked around cameras, I worked on the ITN News At Ten and the Channel 4 News, so didn’t think I would be too nervous, but it’s really different when you’re actually there.

“And the first question I was asked I actually pressed the wrong buzzer to answer, so that was embarrassing.”

She added: “I have always loved doing quizzes, I like to keep my brain active. My father actually had Alzheimer’s before he died, to see what can happen to someone you really love and respect is very distressing.

“That made me want to do everything I can use my brain as much as I can, so I do quizzes regularly.”

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Piers Morgan has been accused of a hostile attack against the US Constitution

A petition calling for TV host Piers Morgan to be deported from the US following his outspoken comments on gun control has attracted more than 31,000 signatures.

The CNN host provoked the fury of gun rights activists when he interviewed Gun Owners of America executive director Larry Pratt, in the wake of the school shootings in Newtown, Connecticut, and said to him: “You’re an unbelievably stupid man, aren’t you?

“You have absolutely no coherent argument. You don’t actually give a damn about the gun murder rate in America.”

Following the interview, a petition was posted on the White House website claiming that Morgan, 47, “is engaged in a hostile attack against the US Constitution by targeting the Second Amendment”.

More than 31,600 people have signed the petition, which hit the 25,000-signature threshold to get a White House response.

Morgan joked on Twitter: “If I do get deported from America for wanting fewer gun murders, are there any other countries that will have me?”

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A man was hospitalised after overdosing on Brussels sprouts, it has emerged.

The Scottish resident from Ayrshire was rushed to hospital after eating a plateful of the festive vegetables.

It gives diners not so keen on sprouts another reason to pass on the unpopular vegetable when offered a helping on Christmas Day.

Brussels sprouts are rich in vitamin K, a chemical the body uses to promote blood clotting.

The man, who has not been named, suffered a heart failure after the sprouts interfered with his blood thinning medication.

Doctors at Golden Jubilee National Hospital in Clydebank, West Dunbartonshire, were left stumped by his condition before learning of his above-average Brussels sprout intake.

Consultant cardiologist Dr Roy Gardner said: ‘Patients who are taking anticoagulants are generally advised not to eat too many green leafy vegetables, as they are full of vitamin K, which antagonise the action of this vital medication.’

The case was reported in a festive edition of the Medical Journal of Australia.

Jill Young, chief executive of the Golden Jubilee Hospital, said: ‘Whilst we think this is possibly the first-ever festive admission to hospital caused by the consumption of Brussels sprouts, we were delighted that we were able to stabilise his levels.’

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A piece of artwork made out of tea bags on display in central Milton Keynes encourages people to think about the true meaning of Christmas.

The wiseman’s robe made out of used tea bags was created by Julia Browne and will be appearing – appropriately – outside Tea Monkey Café, in Midsummer Place on Saturday (December 22).

It is part of the nomadic Following.the.star project which explores themes of advent and Christmas. Local artists are displaying their creations around the city centre until Monday.

Tea Monkey founder, Tracey Bovingdon, said: “This artwork encourages passersby to remember the more important things about Christmas. It’s easy to get stressed by the amount of shopping that has to be done but it’s equally as important to spend time with your friends and family.

“At Tea Monkey we like to remind people to take a moment out of their busy day to have a chat and enjoy the world around them. The idea behind this arty installation matches our values and we are very happy to be involved with the project to provide a relaxing environment to soak up the artwork and our tea!”